Chicago faith leaders say Pope Leo visit was humbling

humbling Vatican – A dozen Chicago faith leaders who met Pope Leo XIV during a Thursday, hour-long Vatican meeting said the audience felt humbling and spiritually transformative—especially as they prayed for him, spoke about migration and detention, and described a shared sense

VATICAN CITY — When Mayor Brandon Johnson’s delegation finally reached Pope Leo XIV, the room felt different from the moment they had been waiting for. For Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann, the shock came before she even spoke: an empty chair at the front of the room, placed at the pope’s position.

“I was moved in a way that surprised even myself,” Heydemann said, describing how the sight landed with force as she sat with other faith leaders from Chicago for their Thursday meeting with the pope.

Johnson led the delegation to the Vatican, and the group included a dozen leaders from various faith communities. The meeting lasted about an hour. At the center of the delegation stood Roman Catholic and Protestant clergy alongside two women — a rabbi and a Methodist pastor — while Bishop Horace E. Smith, senior pastor of the Apostolic Faith Church in Bronzeville, made a special request. Smith asked the pope if the group could pray for him. Afterward, Johnson said he felt the audience with the Chicago-born pontiff was profound, pastoral, and comforting, calling it “an affirmation.”.

“The soul of Chicago is definitely in Rome and at the Vatican today — business leaders. labor leaders. community leaders. elected leaders. faith leaders. all coming together united in this moment to protect humanity. ” Johnson said in an interview Friday at Caffé Portofino in Rome’s Prati neighborhood.

Many in the delegation reached for similar words when describing what they felt in the room. For Heydemann, the encounter carried a distinctly personal weight. She runs Mishkan Chicago. a progressive Jewish community in Ravenswood. with about 670 member families. and she said the past few years have been “a rough couple of years” for her work as a Jewish religious leader.

In her account, what struck her most was the scale of responsibility she could feel in the presence of a global religious figure.

“I don’t steward the spiritual lives of a billion Catholics,” Heydemann said. “I run a progressive spiritual community in the city of Chicago with about 670 member families, but it’s been a rough couple of years as a Jewish religious leader.”

She said that moment at the pope’s empty chair helped her understand “the number of people he stewards and carries,” and that when she had the opportunity to speak with him, she saw a way of holding that weight with “an elegant and principled” approach.

Heydemann said that as an LGBTQ-friendly, inclusive community, and as a female leader, she and Pope Leo’s Catholic tradition still share “major theological points of disagreement.” But she said the values she described as shared were what brought them together.

“When Smith gathered the group of faith leaders to bless and pray for Leo, it was a moment of ‘shared privilege,’” Heydemann said. “It’s a privilege that comes with a weight that sits on our shoulders that actually felt a little bit lighter in his presence and in the presence of one another.”

At Our Lady of the Rosary parish, the language of unity was just as central. Rev. Juan Vargas, an associate pastor who serves Dunning and Portage Park on the Northwest Side, described the act of praying across faith lines as “a moment of unity,” and said the group came “speaking with one voice.”

Vargas said that when the delegation had the chance to speak directly with Leo, he told the pope: “I’m praying for you, we’re all praying for you because it’s not easy.” He said Pope Leo thanked him for the prayers and responded by saying he was praying for the priest and his parishioners.

“I told the pope, ‘When I preach from the ambo at mass, to hear your voice proclaim and in a way shout, even though you’re not physically shouting, what the gospel’s inviting us to, it really encourages me to also continue to bring that to light,’” Vargas said.

Vargas said he saw Pope Leo as attentive and responsive, and he described the pope as hearing not just religious leaders but the needs of ordinary people.

“He’s listening to our cry, whatever cry it is all over the world,” Vargas said. “He’s very attentive, and he’s responding.”

That attention was also central to Michael Okinczyc-Cruz, executive director of the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership in Chicago. A day after meeting Pope Leo XIV, he stood in St. Peter’s Square in front of “Angels Unawares. ” a bronze sculpture by Timothy Schmalz installed by Pope Francis to mark the 105th World Migrant and Refugee Day.

Okinczyc-Cruz said his emotions were tied to what he brought into the meeting — especially the work done by immigrant members of his organization.

“In that moment. I was just overcome with emotion because of how difficult it’s been and how the work really has been led by our immigrant members. ” Okinczyc-Cruz said. He said his group recently reached a legal agreement after suing the federal Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to allow daily pastoral care at the Broadview ICE Detention Center.

He described the legal action not as theory but as lived experience: “They organized from the bottom up to make this happen. It wasn’t theoretical for them. This is their lived experience.” He said the immigrants involved faced detention and deportation. or were moved around the country. and that they took “great risk” to show up to Broadview during “Operation Midway Blitz.”.

Okinczyc-Cruz said Pope Leo’s attention to that struggle was especially moving. He also said he was struck by the pope’s familiarity with the legal agreement.

“When he spoke briefly with the pope, Okinczyc-Cruz said he was shocked that Leo — who is a canon lawyer — had read about the legal agreement and was knowledgeable about the case.

“The gospel and Jesus’ message in Christianity. in general. has often been used and manipulated and wielded as a cudgel throughout history. ” Okinczyc-Cruz said. “When the pope speaks about violence or genocide and hunger and poverty and exploitation. he’s not speaking on these matters from a partisan political perspective. He’s speaking from the perspective of being a pastor and a follower of Jesus Christ and the pope of the Catholic Church…. That’s what carries so much weight for those who are Catholic but also for those who are not Catholic. These values resonate deeply, and that also shines through.”.

In the delegation’s accounts, the through-line wasn’t only spiritual language. It was also urgency about power, systems, and who gets protected when pressure rises. Rev. Tanya Lozano Washington. pastor of Lincoln United Methodist Church in Pilsen and chief executive officer of Healthy Hood Chicago. said her experience of the Vatican meeting reflected what she called “a spiritual crisis as much as it is a political one.”.

“We’re living through a spiritual crisis as much as it is a political one,” Lozano Washington said. “This world, in general, has built systems that normalize cruelty and isolation and greed and violence…. I truly believe humanity is hungry for a different way forward.”

She said churches have to be willing to name power plainly — and she drew a line between that and what she described as fear and militarism.

“As a pastor. I’ll say that the church is at its best when it tells the truth about power. ” Lozano Washington said. “Whenever fear and nationalism and militarism become more sacred than human life, the church has a responsibility to speak. What I really admire and appreciate both about Mayor Brandon Johnson and Pope Leo is their willingness to speak with moral clarity in a time where the many leaders are too afraid to.”.

Lozano Washington is the daughter of the late Rev. Walter “Slim” Coleman, a liberation theologian, civil rights leader, Black Panther Party member, and co-founder of the Rainbow-PUSH Coalition. Her mother is Emma Lozano, a longtime Chicago civil and immigrant rights activist and leader of Pueblo Sin Fronteras. Her uncle was Rudy Lozano. a Chicago Chicano and labor rights activist who helped Harold Washington get elected as the city’s first Black mayor in April 1983.

Two months later, Lozano said, Rudy Lozano was killed in his home in what many believe was a politically motivated assassination.

That history shaped how she described Pope Leo’s approach. She said she appreciated his willingness to revive what she called “the prophetic tradition of the church. ” asking not only how people are saved. but whether “the poor are being crushed. ” whether “peace is being pursued. ” and whether “human dignity is actually being practiced.”.

“What I really appreciate about Pope Leo is his willingness to recover the prophetic tradition of the church. ” Lozano Washington said. “That’s what [Leo is] speaking to the church in this moment. As a Christian, as a United Methodist, I feel deeply aligned with [Leo’s] message. And I’m so grateful to the mayor and the mayor’s team that put together such a diverse delegation…of faith leaders. business leaders. political leaders. labor and union leaders. It was so representative of the soul of Chicago.”.

Meeting Leo, she said, made her feel like the group had what it needed to shift culture toward a more humane priority. Lozano Washington said it wasn’t only meaningful for Chicago, but for the world.

“Meeting Leo along with many other Chicago leaders ‘made me feel like we really have everything we need to shift the culture towards a place that prioritizes humanity,’” she said. “This was such a monumental moment not just for Chicago but for the world.”

Pope Leo XIV Brandon Johnson Chicago faith leaders Vatican meeting Mishkan Chicago Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann Bishop Horace E. Smith Juan Vargas Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership Broadview ICE Detention Center Operation Midway Blitz Healthy Hood Chicago Tanya Lozano Washington Apostolic Faith Church Our Lady of the Rosary St. Peter’s Square